The SCoSE consists of eight parts:
- Part 1: Complete Conversations
- Part 2: Indianapolis Interviews
- Part 3: Jokes
- Part 4: Drawing Experiment
- Part 5: Kassel Classroom Discourse
- Part 6: Stories
- Part 7: London Teenage Talk
- Part 8: Musicians' Talk
Transcriptions in the SCoSE base on the following transcription conventions: (click here)
You can download each of the eight parts as a PDF file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download here:
Part 1: Complete Conversations 
Contents
The conversations included in this section of the corpus derive from tapes made by two students in their junior year at a large state university near Chicago as a class assignment to record family and friends in natural settings during their Thanksgiving break at the end of November. The students secured permission to record before the interactions, and the recorders were placed in view of everyone present. Both students were themselves participants in the conversations they recorded, so that they had access to background information about the settings and participants in each case. We have subsequently assigned fictional names to all participants to preserve anonymity for everyone involved, as the students promised those they taped. These names differ in some cases from pseudonyms Professor Norrick has used for these same speakers in excerpts from this data base cited in various talks and publications.
1. Mary and others
At home
In this first set of conversations, the two sisters Mary (21 years old) and Amy (20 years old) are both students at universities near Chicago. In this first excerpt, Mary and Amy are at home with their parents Patricia and Ralph (in their mid 40's) for the long Thanksgiving break. Amy's boyfriend Peter is present from line 650 as well. They are all from the western suburbs of Chicago.
Pizza
In this conversation, Mary and her boyfriend Brad are visiting Mary's sister Amy and her boyfriend Peter in her apartment.
Classes
In this conversation, Mary and Amy are alone talking about their college classes.
2. Addie and Brianne
In this second, single long conversation, Brianne and Addie are close friends together the day after Thanksgiving for the first time since they departed for separate universities in mid-August. Both women are close to twenty-one years old, and both come from northern Illinois.
Part 2: Indianapolis InterviewsContents
All the stories included in this corpus were recorded in interviews Professor Norrick conducted with senior citizens aged 80 and older in a retirement community in Indianapolis, Indiana, over the space of a week in the summer of 2002. He lived in the retirement community while recording, and he had met some of the interviewees before the recording sessions around the public area, at meals or "happy hour." Interviews took place in the cottages or apartments of the interviewees or in activity rooms in the central "lodge" of the community. The interviews were in principle unrestricted in time and topic, though Professor Norrick often prompted interviewees by asking for funny experiences from the past. He initially hoped to elicit two or three stories from each participant in ten to fifteen minute interviews, but many of the sessions ended up lasting well over an hour and including many stories. The transcriptions were produced from his recordings by Sabine John according to the conventions summarized below.
Part 3: Jokes Contents
All the stories included here are transcribed from many hours of audio-taped talk recorded by Professor Norrick and his students at Northern Illinois University and at Saarland University. Permission to tape the interactions was usually secured beforehand, and the recorders were placed in view of everyone present, though some conversations were recorded surreptitiously and permission to use them was secured after the fact. Most of the excerpts come from real conversations among family members and friends, fellow students and colleagues. More often than not, Professor Norrick and his students were themselves participants in the conversations they recorded, so that they had access to background information about the settings and participants from the ones doing the recording in each case. They have subsequently assigned fictional names to all participants to preserve anonymity for everyone involved, as Professor Norrick and his students promised those they taped. These names differ in some cases from pseudonyms Professor Norrick used for these same speakers in excerpts from this data base cited in various talks and publications. The differing transcription formats reflect the different research interests of the transcribers.
Part 4: Drawing Experiment Contents
These transcriptions derive from an experiment, in which pairs of subjects were asked to reproduce a drawing seen by only one member of each pair, who described the drawing for the other member, who could hear but not see the first. All the subjects are students at various colleges near Chicago, all between twenty and twenty-five years old. Our own version of the drawing appears below.
Part 5: Kassel classroom discourse Contents
These transcriptions are based on recordings of two separate English classes at a school in Kassel. File A documents a tenth grade lesson with a female teacher, while File B represents a sixth grade English lesson with a male teacher. Both teachers are native speakers of German.
- File A: Tenth grade English lesson (download transcript) (download MP3 audio file)
- File B: Sixth grade English lesson (download transcript) (download MP3 audio file)
Part 6: Stories Contents
All the stories included here are transcribed from many hours of audio-taped talk recorded by Professor Norrick and his students while he was at Northern Illinois University. Permission to tape the interactions was usually secured beforehand, and the recorders were placed in view of everyone present, though some conversations were recorded surreptitiously and permission to use them was secured after the fact. Most of the excerpts come from real conversations among family members and friends, fellow students and colleagues. More often than not, Professor Norrick and his students were themselves participants in the conversations they recorded, so that they had access to background information about the settings and participants from the ones doing the recording in each case. They have subsequently assigned fictional names to all participants to preserve anonymity for everyone involved, as Professor Norrick and his students promised those they taped. These names differ in some cases from pseudonyms Professor Norrick has used for these same speakers in excerpts from this data base cited in various talks and publications. The differing transcription formats reflect the different research interests of the transcribers.
Part 7: London Teenage Talk Contents
All the stories included here are transcribed by Nadine Luck from hours of audio-taped talk recorded by her and Christine Roth at Dartford Grammar School for Girls and Gravesend Grammar School for Boys in England in 2008. All the subjects were students at those schools and native speakers of English between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. The recordings were made during class time. Pairs of students went to a separate room where they were asked to converse normally and left alone. Permission to tape the interactions was secured beforehand. Ms. Luck has subsequently assigned fictional names to all participants to preserve anonymity for everyone involved.
Part 8: Musicians' Talks Contents
The transcript in this part of the corpus is of a brass quintet rehearsal, which was recorded by one of Prof. Norrick's students while spending a semester in Melbourne, Australia. All speakers in this transcript are native Australians and students of music who have been working together as a quintet for an extended time period.